Old Earth creationists and other conservative Christians denying any evolution

Views on Evolution (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

When we looked at North America the last ten years we could see that very conservative Christians gained terrain and could blown up the whole evolution thing in a ridiculous way.

A big problem with the creationists is that they all undermine the normal Christian thinking and Christian concept of creation and the relationship of man versus the creation. Very bad, not to say 'ridiculous' is their ignorant attitude to all historical and scientific findings, which makes others to step away form such people who do not want to believe what we all can see with our own eyes.

Their wrong concept of evolution is not taken on by all Christians, and the world should know than there are enough Christians who look at creation in other ways than they do.

Irving Hexham, a religion and politics professor at the University of Calgary, said evolution - like abortion - is a divisive issue among evangelical Christians. He doesn't think there is any reason why Christians can't believe in evolution, and throughout the world, a lot of Christians do.

Natalie Odd, an Alberta Party member and mother of two, attended an open house held by Mr. Gordon Dirks over the weekend, hoping to confront the minister about spending cuts. Having taken him aside she also began to question him about another evolution.

"He said, it's possible to believe in creation and evolution. I wasn't getting an answer out of him," she said. "As we were walking away, he threw up his hands and said: ‘I'm an Old Earth Guy.'"

The comments were confirmed by other attendees, and Mr. Heyman.
Ms. Odd said she had to look the phrase up on the Internet as she was unfamiliar with it.

Brian Alters knows the term quite well, however. Alters is president for the U.S.-based National Center for Science Education, a professor at Chapman University in California and previously on the faculty of McGill University. He said "Old Earth" creationism encompasses a spectrum of beliefs. Old Earth creationists generally accept that the earth is older than 10,000 years. Beyond that, however, beliefs range. Some believe that evolution is the mechanism by which God guides life on earth. Others totally reject the generally accepted scientific theory of biological evolution.

Mr. Dirks declined to elaborate on his view further when questioned by the Post.

"With the education minister, if this is something that he practices in his place of worship with colleagues of similar faith, I think most scientists wouldn't have the slightest problem," Mr. Alters said. "The problem is if the education minister says ‘I'm an Old Earth creationist because I think there's credible evidence against evolution. I find evolution to not be credible.' Then we have big problems, Houston."

Read more in:

Being a creationist conservative in Canada ‘gives your opponents a tremendous amount of ammunition’

Find more about the creation

• Genesis Among the Creation Myths

• Coming to the creation of human beings in the image of God
• Scripture about Creation and Creator Deity
• God, the Father, the Sole Creator of Heaven and Earth
• Something from nothing
• Means of creations
• Genesis 1 story does not take away an evolution
• The very very beginning 1 Creating Gods

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A look at evolution from a Christadelphian perspective

We never shall get to know how everything really was created, until the moment Jesus has returned and will tell us or our Father in heaven will enlighten us.

Until then many options are possible, and lots of ideas are being uttered. The question of where we come from is a mystery man has explored throughout human history. 

Geocentrism (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Looking at Evolutionary Creationism: A Christadelphian Perspective you may find some interesting reading.


One hundred years ago, second editor of The Christadelphian CC Walker rebutted the arguments of a Christadelphian who thought the concept of a spherical earth was unbiblical and heretical, and based his arguments on a literal reading of the Bible.

Fundamentalists and the New Atheists are mirror images of each other in how they see the science-Bible debate. The former reject science because a literal reading of the creation narratives conflicts with it, while the latter reject Christianity because they know that reality contradicts a literal reading of Genesis which they think is the only possible way to read the Bible.

Nothing demonstrates the fact that Genesis 1 is ancient cosmology and not modern science more effectively than its declaration that the firmament was solid, separating waters above from waters below. It is this one fact more than anything else that destroys both literal and strong concordist readings of the Genesis 1 that seek to read it as a scientifically accurate account of origins. It also shows that contemporary special creationists - both YEC and OEC - not only fail to interpret Genesis 1 properly on this point but are also ignorant of how early Christian and Jewish expositors interpreted Genesis 1.

Read more in:

Karl Giberson: Geocentrism is what real Biblical literalism looks like

From the Dust - Conversations in Creation

Early Christians and Jews accepted that the firmament of Genesis was solid

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Related articles

• Creationism is not a plain reading of the text (religionron.wordpress.com)
  Yom — which means day has other meanings.  None of them in ancient hebrew means a 24 hour day.  It means literally sunset to sunset.  So then how exactly can there be a sunset to sunset before the fourth yom in Gen 1:14-19?  Right there cant be.   That definition requires an earth, a sky, a moon and a sun.  Which didn’t exist until then.  So the other definitions of yom are this: a metaporic day,  an unspecified amount of time.   If we want to take it literally we are left with an unspecified amount of time.   Those of us that think its metaphoric don’t have a problem with either.  Why?  a day to God is an unspecified amount of time.  Either way the main reason for the belief is wrong.
• Genesis as a metaphor, does even that work? (skeptical-science.com)
  Most would dismiss the idea of 7 literal 24 hours days, as described in the book of genesis, as factual (except perhaps Ken Ham), and so Ken aside, one of the most popular views, one that I once personally embraced, is the thought that it is simply a metaphor, and that each day is a symbol that represents a geological age. Is even this credible?
  
• Ch. 6 - Non-Concordist interpretations (lookroundyou.wordpress.com)
  Non-concordist views- Genesis is divinely inspired and authoritative but does not contain historical or scientific information
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  the number and ordering of the “days” of Genesis 1 are chosen for poetic and thematic reasons rather than historical reasons; Genesis 1 is not typical Hebrew poetry, nor is it Old Testament historical narrative such as the books of Samuel and Kings;  It is a narrative but one with rhythm and repetition of ideas and phrases.  There is structure where the first three days correspond with the last three:
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  Both – let science drive the interpretation of Scripture rather than letting theological considerations and consistency with the rest of Scripture be the priority.
  Reminder: focus on living our lives according to the “clear messages of God’s Word” rather than debating the nuances of interpretation of less clear passages
  
• Without science, and the center of our own universe (themorningsun.com)
  Since the universe isn’t fixed, you can make an argument that every spot is its center. The case for the other is a touch dicier, especially if you understand anything about gravity.
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  Geocentrism is a fringe idea among fringe ideas in scientific circles. Alas, scientific circles aren’t the same as popular circles. Most polls tag public belief in it at between 20 and 25 percent. That is, at least one in five Americans believe that Copernicus got it wrong in the 16th century.
• Creationist: Science Begins with the Bible, Not the Facts (patheos.com)
  Over at Answers in Genesis, Ken Ham asked fellow Creationist Steve Golden to review a book promoting, among other things, the idea that evolution is real but God has a hand in the process.
  Of course, this is all blasphemy to them because Christians who buy into theistic evolution are obviously the wrong kinds of Christians
• Creationist Ham Claims Fossil Is Proof Humans And Dinosaurs Lived Together (americanlivewire.com)
  To most of you who have probably grown up with the belief that dinosaurs lived millions of years ago and that humans have only recently come into existence, this claim may seem a little far fetched. Creationist Ken Ham is claiming that an Allosaurus fossil that the Creation Museum is going to put on display will prove that human lived right alongside dinosaurs only a few short thousand years ago. Ham claims that the great Biblical flood took place a little more than 4,000 years ago, which wiped out the dinosaurs at that time. His whole claim has traditional scientists metaphorically standing around and scratching their heads.
• Biblical Science You Were Never Taught In School (bblessedtoday.net)
  Even if you are not a scientist, I want you to know that you don’t have to be a scientist to believe the bible over the smartest scientists on the planet.  My first thought was, “this can’t be, this is crazy.”  As you dig a bit into the matter and the shock dies down, your next phase will be that you will not knock down Geocentricity and say it is not so and let it be a possibility and not make a full decision. Perhaps after you see some of these videos and links, you will say, this is not crazy, this is biblical. And you will realize God is always right.
• The Mind of Creationists and Our Communication Gap (skepticalteacher.wordpress.com)
  Like many who call themselves skeptics of pseudoscience, the paranormal, and religion, I have some friends who are into one of more of the aforementioned areas. Specifically, I have friends who proudly call themselves creationists, in the sense that they adhere to the most common variant called Young-Earth Creationism (where their reading of the Bible says the Earth/universe is roughly 6000-10,000 years old). What I want to do here is to recount a conversation I had with one of these friends and how it opened my eyes into how the creationist mind seems to work.
• Geocentrism? Seriously? (blogs.discovermagazine.com)
  I have to scratch my head over Geocentrists. These are people who believe that the Earth is fixed in space, unmoving and unmovable, and the Universe literally revolves around it. Without exception, in my experience, these followers of Geocentrism believe in it due to a literal interpretation of the Bible. Finding passages in the Bible to support this belief isn’t hard; Genesis is loaded with them.
  However, like young-Earth creationism, the problem here is in that "literal" part^*. If you take the Bible to be true word for word, then you have to deny a vast amount of reality, and almost everything we’ve learned about the Universe since the Bible was written.
  
• Geocentricity: Cosmology of the Bible (bblessedtoday.net)
  Many Christians are falling for deceptions of all kinds. They are falling into cult and occult false denominations, false good, false evil….they are being attacked on every aspect of life. Why would the area of science be any different? I already did an earlier post with longer videos to look at. Biblical Science You Were Never Taught In School  Please just look at what it is. You don’t have to believe it if you don’t want to but I think the argument is compelling and you know what else is more important? I trust God’s word over what the godless humanists say about anything.  As Christians we should follow God’s word over man’s in all things.